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Welcome to the official Netflix blog. The authors of this blog are various members of the Netflix team, proud to be helping change the way people watch television and delivering on the promise of Internet TV. This blog is a place for us to share some of what we are doing.

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Today we're bringing Netflix to the UK and Ireland. I am Neil Hunt, chief product officer at Netflix. I’m proud to have led the product team that brings Netflix to the country where I grew up, after spending most of my career in California.

Click-to-Watch TV Programmes and Films Over the Internet

Netflix is available now and anyone can get a one month free trial: click-to-watch TV programmes and films streamed instantly over the Internet to your smart TV, game console, computer, tablet or mobile device. After the free trial, it costs just £5.99 or €6.99. Our catalog is full of complete TV programmes such as The Only Way is Essex, Prison Break, and Damages (watch from the pilot episode all the way through the last complete season/series) and great films such as 3:10 to Yuma, Blitz and The English Patient, with new content added continuously.

Streaming to TVs, Computers, Tablets, and Mobiles

We have spent the last four years building and refining streaming players for the major game consoles, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, tablets, and mobile phones, as well as Mac and PC-based computers. We have honed and refined the apps based upon our experience in the Canadian, US, and Latin American markets. The current versions of our apps have cool streaming technology that starts streaming the video instantly and quickly scales up to high definition with surround sound when your broadband connection supports it. If you don’t have a game console or smart TV, there are nifty smart TV adaptor products on the market that convert a regular television to an Internet-connected television starting at around £50.

Social Network Driven Suggestions

We are partnering with Facebook to facilitate signing up for a free trial; the link between members’ Netflix and Facebook accounts provides for seamless sharing of ideas for shows and films to watch. Whether you are watching on a smart TV, game console, computer, or mobile device, you’ll see suggestions based on what your friends are watching.

Personalized Recommendations

To help members find something great to watch from a library of thousands of TV episodes and films, we have built a system that offers suggestions based on each individual's tastes. Members rate TV programmes and films, indicate which genres they enjoy. Netflix learns from that and from each member's viewing activity to offer a rich variety of relevant viewing ideas, including a personalized list of top ten suggestions and an always evolving set of personalized genres. If you watch a lot of dramas and loved an inspiring, rags-to-riches tale like "October Sky," you might get a set of "Emotional Dramas based on contemporary literature" titles such as "Chocolat" and "Cider House Rules." Or if you prefer sci-fi, or documentaries, or have kids, Netflix will always have a wide range of interesting suggestions waiting for you.

Just for Kids

For Netflix members with children we offer a wide range of the best TV shows and movies for different age groups along with a special kid-friendly section (for kids 12 and under) on the Wii, on the Web site, and, soon, on many other devices. Kids are given personalized categories chosen from what they love: girl power, talking animals, superheroes, dinosaurs, princesses, robots, etc. They can also go to a easy-to-use, fun area to find many of their favorite characters. The section features everyone from SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer to Power Rangers, iCarly and Thomas the Tank Engine.